Process for economic steam production in cane-sugar factories.



I w. GE-VEKE. PROCESS FOR ECONOMIC STEAM PRODUCTION IN CANE SUGAR FACTORIES. v

APPLICATION FILED IULY3. 19H.

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WILLIAM GEV'EKE, or NEW YORK, N. Y.-

PROCESS FOR ECONOMIC STEAM rnonuorron IN CANE-SUGAR FAGTORIES.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Mar. 12, 191 8 Application filed July 3,1917. Serial no. means.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, WILLIAM GEVE'KE, a subject of the Queen of Holland, a resident of New York, in the county of New York and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Processes Steam Production in Cane-Sugar Factories, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to a process of pre paring bagasse for burning in furnaces, such. for example as the furnaces of the steam boilers of sugar mills.

As is well known, bagasse is the term ap-' plied to the crushed and broken sugar cane, after the expression therefrom of sugar juice by the cane crushers. 'Such bagasse. commonly contains a large proportion of moisture-this proportion of moisture vary- I ing, however, greatly, according to various at 60 per cent. being 2599 conditions.

Prof. A. Guell, in, a recent paper read before the Louisiana Sugar Planters Association, stated that Louisiana bagasse con-' tains from 4:0 to per cent. of'moisture, and that it is this moisture, more than any thing'else, that stands in the way of more successful bagasse burning. Charles H. ORourke, in a recent paper read before'the same association, gives, on the authority of Mr. W. H. Rainer, the bagasse ranging from 60 per cent. moisture to 0 per cent. moisture, the B. T. U. value and at 0 per cent. being 8360.

Because of the very low thermal value of bagasse in the moist condition in which it comes from the crushers, steam drying of bagasse, preparatory to feeding it to the furnaces, has been used to a considerable extent, notwithstanding that it is well known that such steam drying is in itself quite expensive. In fact, Mr. ORourke, in his said paper, of the burning of bagasse altogether, and recommends instead that it be used for cattle feed.

In the gathering of the sugar cane in the field, the. leaves are usually stripped from the stalk and the stalk or cane only is carried to the crusher mills and then, after con version of that cane into bagasse, the bagasse is carried by suitable conveyers, with or without intermediate steam drying, to the furnaces, and burned. Owing to the diificulties in generating steam in considfor Economic 1 supply .fuel in B. T. .U. value of,

advises the discontinuance 'trate apparatus adapted for erable quantities from the bagasse, dueto' the low fuel value of the latter in itsordinary moist condition, it has been proposed, and to some extent attempted, to burn the leaves themselves in one or more boilers of a boiler battery, steam from-the boilers fed. with bagasse being mingled with steam from the boilers fed with cane leaves. But the cane leaves themselves do not form a desirable fuel.v Being-very loose, and dry, 6 they cannot be'fed'into a furnace so as to proper .volume; and at best they make a very hot but fluctuating and irregular fire.

My .invention consists in raising the calo- 7 rific value of bagasse in its ordinary wet j condition as it emerges from the crusher."

ably plant leaves, and still more preferably 7 the leaves of the sugar cane itself; If the plant leaves so mixed with the bagasse be such as the ordinary cane preferably cut, or chopped into small pieces, before being fed into mix- 8 ture with the bagasse. Such naturally dried material has in itself high calorific value; and moreover, because of its loosefnature, it tends to open up the mass of bagasse, facilitating the passage of air therethrough S and facilitating greatly the propagation of combustion through the mass of moist ba' gasse. Furthermore, this mixture of ba gasse and leavescanbe carried more readily than the bagasse itself,.-by the usual ba- 9 gasse conveyers, and can befed into the boiler furnaces more readily than can the bagasse alone. In the case of boilers in batlarge leaves, leaves, they are tery, all of the boilers of the battery may As will bejudged from the foregoing, the I object of my-invention is to facilitate the burning of wet vegetable material, particularly bagasse. 1

. In theaccompanying drawings 1 illusthe process above outlined. In the said drawmgs'Figure lis aside" view and Fig. 2

a top view of'apparatus for crushing cane 1 carrying out i into bagasse, for cutting cane fleaves and I In these' drawings, 1 designates an ordinary cane crusher mill, or the final mill of a series of such crushers, and 2 designates .a chute down which the bag'asse from such mill 1 passes. .3 designates, more or less I diagrammatically, a leaf-cutter,'which may be of any desired'construction, and 4c desig- I hates a chute by which the cut leaves are de- I stripped from the cane in the field, as is cut leaves with the'jbagasse.

posited in admixture with -ing down the chute 2.

the bagasse 'pass- 5 designates an" ordinar bagasse conveyer, usually of the chain-link type whereby themixture of bagasse and leaves is carriedfrom the pile formed in frontof the.

front chutes 2 and l,- to the downtakes 6 of the boiler furnaces 7. lln carrying out my process, the leaves'are customary and the cane is 'oarri edfto the Crushers while the leaves are collected and carried to the cutter? These leaves are already well dried before they are stripped from the cane; hence they require no dry-- v ing, either'on the ground or elsewhere. The

" mixture of bagasseand leaves, formed by y the joint action of the crusher mills'l and leaf cutter 3, is conveyed; as already dethe dry scribing witnesses;

. messes scribed, to the boiler furnaces and the ,mix- 35 ture burned therein. As already-explained;

leaves not only add calorific value,

but open up the mass ofi bagasse so as to facilitate the passage of air and flame gases the'rethrough and also facilitate the 'propagation of flame through the &

tending to ass in the fire {prevent the formation of holes bed as'wellas the forrniation of dead spots in the fire bed, and to produce uniform combustion of the'mass of fuel.

What I claim is: r l. The hereindescribed method of preparing-'bagasse for combustion in boiler fur- -naces and the like, which consists in mixln' intimatelywith such bagasse dry vegeta le material, particularly dry leaves.

' 2. The herein described method of pre- I paring b'agassefor combustion in; bciler furnaces and the like, which consists in cutting.

d 'y'cane leaves and intimately'miajng the In testimony .vv'herecf l have signed this specification inthe' presence of two; sub

* a er Witnesses: v

.' E. S. lltosai. 

